• Gaming

Submitted by Arcee on 01.12.11

Well, here is a tale we can file under the twisted love stories tab. A Lake Forest, Calif., woman has been charged with rape and child molestation charges after she pursued a relationship with a teenage boy she met on Xbox Live.

The 36-year-old woman, identified by Orange County Sherriff's officials as Rachel Ann Hicks, a married mother with three children herself, is alleged to have traveled from her southern California home to meet with a 13-year-old boy in Maryland for sex.

The pair are said to have become acquainted on an Xbox Live chat room in September 2010, and a series of exchanges with each other via e-mail, text messaging, and phone calls ensued. Soon they were swapping sexy pictures and movies, and Hicks then decided to pay a Thanksgiving visit to the boy, while on vacation in Florida with her family, whereupon the couple had an intimate encounter.

The relationship was finally exposed when the boy's family went snooping through his phone and saw romantic messages from Hicks. When confronted with the evidence his family had found, he admitted to everything.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations Child Exploitation Unit soon became involved in tracking down Hicks because she had used a fake name and also made claims to be 23 years old. After months of investigation, she was eventually tracked down and arrested in her Lake Forest home Friday, Jan. 7.

Hicks is currently being held without bail in an Orange County facility after being charged with rape, child molestation, and sexual solicitation of a minor. The reason no bail was set is because she has also admitted to pursuing a similar relationship with another boy in California. Authorities now suspect more boys may have been "victims" of Hicks' advances.